


all i want is to stay us, to stay with you now

by royalsampaguita



Series: give peace a chance [2]
Category: Derry Girls (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Catholic Character, Crushes, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Humor, Post-Canon, Protestant Character, orla and james make an appearance towards the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 20:35:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20180338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/royalsampaguita/pseuds/royalsampaguita
Summary: Erin got on the small stage and looked around at everyone, Prod and Catholic, getting scolded by their parents and guardians.  With a small smile as inspiration struck, she turned to the Board of Similarities and wrote in big, capital letters “P A R E N T S”.  She turned back around, her all-weather pants making a swishy noise that she knows Orla loved, and her eyes met Dee’s. He looked impressed and her smile grew as a blush crept up her cheeks.orSomehow Father Peter had convinced the parents to let them stay and finish up the whole Give Peace a Chance event.  Erin has some things she wants to say and Dee is willing to hear it.  Dee and Erin aren't so good at acknowledging their feelings so Michelle and Harry help out.





	all i want is to stay us, to stay with you now

**Author's Note:**

> pre-after all but you don't need to read it to understand what's happening here

Erin got on the small stage and looked around at everyone, Prod and Catholic, getting scolded by their parents and guardians. With a small smile as inspiration struck, she turned to the Board of Similarities and wrote in big, capital letters “P A R E N T S”. She turned back around, her all-weather pants making a swishy noise that she knows Orla loved, and her eyes met Dee’s. He looked impressed and her smile grew as a blush crept up her cheeks.

After seeing Erin’s stroke of genius, Father Peter somehow had convinced everyone to stay the full time allotted. Well, he said everyone but it was very obvious he was talking to the parents, trying to “give peace a chance here. There’s already been some progress, the, ehm, fight notwithstanding.” She’s pretty sure Sister Michael had rolled her eyes as she took a sip of her tea but Erin could see the parents getting swayed by Father Peter’s charm.

She and Michelle were sitting out under a tree, leaning against the trunk, after Sr. Michael and the Prod’s chaperone Ms. Taylor had let them have the rest of the day to themselves. The Derry Girls were surprised at Sr. Michael’s letting them off so easily, but they didn’t question it too badly. Clare had gone off with her buddy, Philip to try to make amends. His da had apparently brought the hearing-aid with him and wouldn’t leave until Philip put it in. James and Orla were God knows where, probably looking for Jon to try and clear things up about “being a lad”, James, and “knowing what to do to survive in the wild, it’s why you need the knife”, Orla, while Jon was trying to avoid the both of them. Erin felt awful still about the fight and the switching of the Prods Dee and Harry. She genuinely wanted to apologize to the both of them, especially after the way Michelle had so indelicately handled the switching in the first place.

As she was explaining this to Michelle, and not so subtly trying to guilt-trip her into apologizing as well, it just so happened that Dee and Harry had come over to talk to them. They came up from behind the girls and overheard the last bits of their conversation.

“All I’m saying is, Michelle, we have to go and apologize to the lads. It wasn’t fair of us to switch them just because you found out about Harry’s purity bracelet, or whatever.” Erin’s voice lowered at the end of the sentence.

“Ach, you’re worse than James sometimes with your whole ‘bein’ sensitive to other people’ thing you do,” Michelle said, making air quotes with a look of annoyance on her face.

“Michelle, for all we know we could’ve really hurt their feelings! I just think it would be good to apologize to them,” Erin said.

“Give peace a chance and all that?” Michelle asked sarcastically. There was a pause before Michelle spoke again, this time her voice softer. “You really think I could’ve hurt the Prods’ feelings? They were nice enough lads, I guess.”

“Well, we’ll just have to find out next time we see them,” Erin’s voice held a note of finality.

Dee and Harry looked at each other, deciding this was the time to interrupt them but Michelle started talking again.

“So what about that Lee fella? I saw what happened after you wrote on that stupid board,” Michelle said.

“His name is Dee and I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Erin said, cursing internally as her cheeks grew red again.

“Aye, sure you don’t. But what a bit it would be to have a Prod and Catholic dating in Derry. Your Mary would actually faint dead I think.”

“Shut up, Michelle,” Erin said, not willing to think about anything down the road of that idea.  _ Dee did have a nice voice though _ , a traitorous voice whispered in her mind.

Harry watched Dee throughout Michelle’s ribbing to see his reaction. It’s not as if he’d miss his best friend looking at Erin while she was up on that little stage. Dee’s always loved challenges, puzzles, and the sort since Harry’s known him. It was a fleeting thought but he felt that should Dee try to pursue something, it would be good for him. Seeing Dee just stand there, staring at the tree where Erin would be on the other side made up his mind.

Loudly, Harry said to Dee, “So today was weird, wasn’t it Dee? I’d like to talk to those two that switched us, see what they think you know?” He winced at the end of his sentence; acting definitely was not a future path for him.

Dee looked at him, confused at why he decided to start talking now and so loudly. His confusion soon shifted to panic as movement was heard from the girls’ side of the tree.

“Hey Erin, Michelle,” Dee managed to croak out, nodding to each, still trying to work through what Harry was doing.

Harry greeted the girls in turn before an awkward silence fell. Michelle looked bored as she examined her nails, wishing she was anywhere but here.

Erin shuffled in place, her pants still making that swishy noise, before opening her mouth. “Lads I, well, we, just wanted to say, that is, to apologize for, well, everything that’s happened these past two days. It wasn’t right for Michelle and me to switch partners so suddenly, especially without having consulted you first, and we don’t think that all Protestants are interchangeable,” Erin stepped on Michelle’s foot here to warn her not to do something stupid, “and we’re really sorry for everything.”

Harry nodded, letting them know he’s forgiven them and the three of them looked to Dee. Throughout Erin’s speech of sorts, his expression hadn’t much changed. As they waited for his reaction though, Harry could see a mischevious glint appear in Dee’s eyes. Whatever he did next was definitely to get a rise out of Erin. Michelle seemed to have picked up on it too and despite loving to see Erin get all fired up, she did not want to watch this weird way of flirting that it seemed Dee and Erin were into. She looked at Harry and tilted her head, raising her eyebrow as if to say, “D’ya want to leave before this gets started?”

As Dee started talking, he and Michelle quietly left, trying to not draw attention to themselves and Erin and Dee got into it.

Oblivious to their friends leaving, their argument continued.

“So you were able to come up with a similarity when you weren’t seated next to me, then? Was I too distracting for you?” Dee simpered, a hand coming up to rest over his heart.

Erin did her classic scoff and eye roll combination. “As if. I just wasn’t able to find anything in common with you. We had just met, after all.”

“But what was it your priest said? ‘We all feel, we all dream’? All that shite?” Dee had a smile on his face, clearly enjoying slagging off the pretty priest to rile Erin up.

“Father Peter is more in tune with the spiritual side of things,” she paused, “after returning to the priesthood.” She cringes just the little bit as she remembers exams last year. That was very humiliating and she tries to not think about it ever.

She looks up into Dee’s blue eyes, darker due to the tree’s shade. She hadn’t realized how close they’ve gotten; the light breeze carried his cologne and she could feel her heartbeat in her throat. She saw his eyes flicker down to her lips for a moment and then focus back on her.

“Dee, I-” she started to say, her voice soft between them, but was cut off by Orla’s voice arguing with James. They were a bit far from them but their voices grew closer and broke the spell of whatever was happening with her and Dee. They jumped apart as James and Orla rounded the corner, James pulling on his curls as Orla seemed to defend her point with her, thankfully sheathed, hunting knife.

“I better go and,” Erin said, motioning to her friends.

“Yeah, yeah,” Dee agreed halfheartedly, rubbing the back of his neck and nodding.

“I’ll see you later then?” Erin asked, hopefully. Her hands twisted together as she waited for his answer.

“Yeah, definitely,” Dee said, his eyes softening just that much.

Erin smiled, her eyes sparkling in the excitement of a promise, and turned to her cousin who was now holding James at hilt point while he looked at her in a mix of fear and amusement.

“Orla, put the fecking knife away! You can’t scare James! Mammy already has to deal with the whole big bowl thing; she doesn’t need to be dealing with this too!”

Dee stared after her, chuckling to himself quietly. As he turned to go find Harry or Jon, the image of Erin’s sparkling eyes popped back into his mind and he decided that he was going to do whatever he had to to make her look like that at him again.

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time really writing any dialog for erin as her character is not as easy to grasp for me as some of the others. i hope i did her justice though! i took liberties with the characterizations of harry and dee as they only showed up in the first episode and harry didn't really do a lot in comparison to dee. francis mezza is just absolutely gorgeous though and i hope you all enjoyed this!


End file.
